In the midst of the worst economic downturn in who-knows how long, out-of-work Californians are frantically searching for new opportunities – often to no avail. Long Beach has been no exception, with an unemployment rate that reached 9.6% in December 2008 and will likely continue to rise.
Some organizations, like the Pacific Gateway Career Transition Center, are committed to helping the newly-unemployed find work. But, as the LA Times‘ Scott Gold points out this morning, that daunting task turns many career counselors into stress-relief therapists.
The job counselors say they now spend almost as much energy arranging social services for their clients — a bed in a homeless shelter, a welfare check — as they do looking for available positions.
They’ve been forced to call suicide hotlines and the police to cope with clients who became violent or despondent. Most situations aren’t so dramatic, although many clients sit in the counselors’ little cubicles and weep, finding it easier to talk about their troubles with a stranger than at home.
It’s a frightening look into the Southland’s new employment landscape, where former supervisors seek lower-level jobs and retirees have no choice but to re-enter the workforce. Hope is hard to come by, as prospective employers are dwindling and job-seekers are growing.
After all, the Career Transition Center was created largely in response to a slowdown that threatened to cripple the Long Beach area — permanently, some figured.
That was in the early 1990s, when the area lost more than 50,000 jobs, at an annual cost of $1.75 billion. Many positions vanished when the Long Beach Naval Station shut down. More disappeared when McDonnell Douglas shrank; indeed, some programs at the training center began as dislocated-worker programs on the McDonnell Douglas campus.
Those were grim days. “But we have never seen anything like this,” said Allison Martinson, a veteran employment specialist. “Never.”
Whereas there was light at the end of the tunnel during the blue-collar layoffs of the early 90s, no such beacon can be seen on the horizon in today’s economic climate – unemployment will likely worsen before improving. Gold points out that construction projects statewide have halted as funding has dried up, and will remain dormant until California can fix its state budget.
By Ryan ZumMallen, Managing Editor